Rockets' Alston says players shoulder blame for Van Gundy firing

THE REACTIONRockets guard among many surprised by team's decision

Published 5:30 am, Saturday, May 19, 2007

SAN ANTONIO — If Jeff Van Gundy was the fall guy for another first-round failure in the playoffs, at least one of the Rockets thinks the wrong guy tumbled.

"If there's any blame in this situation, it comes on us as players," point guard Rafer Alston said. "If we win Game 7 like we should have, then we're probably still playing and nobody's talking about any of this. That game and the whole season came down to us being able to get the job done, and we didn't."

The general reaction from players and most NBA observers is that Van Gundy got all that he could out of the Rockets in guiding them to a 52-30 record in another injury-plagued season when Tracy McGrady missed 10 games and Yao Ming 33 because of injury.

"We had another up-and-down season this year, and it ended with a disappointment," center Dikembe Mutombo said. "But you have to consider that Jeff had to play the second unit for a large part of the season, and he was able to keep the team together and get us into the playoffs when many people did not think that would be possible."

Jon Barry played two seasons under Van Gundy in Houston and was one of Van Gundy's broadcast partners for Friday night's Spurs-Suns game in San Antonio.

"I'm surprised they're going in another direction," Barry said. "Obviously they're disappointed with another first-round loss. But I think that Jeff did one of the finest coaching jobs of his career this season. I mean, he has to play without Yao for 30-plus games and he held it all together when the season could have come apart.

"Jeff is the best coach I ever played for. I think it's his dedication to winning and how focused he is about winning. That's all he's about. He'll do anything to win. His basketball knowledge is like no one that I've ever been around. Coaches, GMs, owners, scouts, anybody. He knows more about basketball than anyone.

"If you ever hear players say that they don't like playing for Jeff, then those are players who don't like playing basketball. But if you love playing basketball, if you love to compete, then there is no better coach you could have than Jeff."

Both coaches in Friday night's Western Conference playoff game simply shook their heads at Van Gundy's dismissal.

"You never know what's going on with somebody else's organization," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "But I do know he's a helluva coach and anybody would be lucky to have him as their coach."

"The guy almost won coach of the year, didn't he?" D'Antoni said of Van Gundy, who finished fourth in the balloting. "That's tough. I hate it for any coach. But he's one of the best coaches that I know. It's just too bad. That's our wacky business, isn't it?"

Alston credits Van Gundy for his own personal development in the NBA.

"Not only being a solid point guard out there on the floor, but also in helping me understand what it takes to be everyday player in the league, to be accountable for all of my actions," he said. "Jeff gave me a chance to run the team, and even though I didn't always shoot the ball particularly well, he always complimented me on the way I handled the offense, ran the team.

"I'm glad I had him as my coach, and he deserves a lot of credit for what was accomplished here. He doesn't deserve the blame for what we didn't do."